12 Days of Coffee: Olympia Coffee Roasting Co. - Holiday Blend

This entry was posted on December 7, 2017 by Ben Schuyler.

You know that family member who always nails it when it comes to gift giving during the holidays? The one that foregoes the weird socks or pink bunny costume for something incredible like "an official Red Ryder, carbine action, two-hundred shot range model air rifle." That's pretty much how Olympia Coffee Roasting Company is when they send us their Holiday Blend. Known for consistently nailing it on their diverse blends, this year's holiday offering is no exception! We're excited to spend twelve days of December highlighting some of our favorite holiday blends coming in from the many talented roasters we carry on our site year round! Each a unique combination of flavor profiles.

Olympia Coffee Roasting Co.:
Holiday Blend

A little background on the blend from the Olympia team...

The “birth” of coffee two thousand years ago inspired this season's Holiday Blend. Coffee was discovered in the highlands of Ethiopia and spread from there throughout the world, where it now stands as the second-most traded product, binding together countries and cultures.

To best express flavors that have been largely unchanged over the centuries, we've combined two coffees from the Yirgacheffe region. Farmer Adisu Kindane’s natural-processed coffee has been grown and sun-dried in the traditional manner, lending fruity, berry flavors and a bit of spice. And the Adame Garbota Cooperative's fully washed coffee brings forth flavors of plum and citrus zest. This Holiday Blend takes us back to coffee's origins and is a tribute to the dynamic flavors brought forth from its birthplace.

We get tasting notes of berries, citrus zest, and plum.

We love this coffee on a Kalita Pour over, or any traditional coffee maker at home, brewed at 1 to 16 ratio of coffee to water (1 gram of coffee for every 16 grams of water). We also think it's going to taste best on the morning of your favorite Holiday, especially if you get to enjoy it with friends or family!

"Holiday Light"-ning Q+A Round answered by their crew...

Real tree or artificial? Always real. All about authenticity here!What are you most excited for this season? We love being a part of so many folks Holiday Gifts, and this year we got some cool merch that we haven't had before, like enamel pins and sweet bike water bottles.
How do you feel about pumpkin spice? Totally cool with it. Drink your coffee however you want! It's not in Olympia Coffee's cafes, but lots of our wholesale partners feature it and I've been known to get one from time to time myself.
What are your favorite holiday treats?I look forward to traditional italian Pizzelle cookies this time every year, but Holiday Blend from Olympia Coffee is seriously a treat I am stoked on every year. Blending is something Oliver, our roast master/green coffee buyer, is really good at but we don't feature a new blend often with such exciting single-origins to talk about.
Presents on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day? Always Christmas Day - prolong the anticipation!
Bows or curly ribbon? Bows - so much easier.

Olympia Coffee Roasting Co.'s big plans for 2018...

We're now totally underway with our Reserve Box offerings. These are small experimental or ultra-special coffees that are total stand-outs in our line-up. We featured 4 during 2017 including our first Hawaiian coffee and a few experimental-fermentation Geishas. 2018 is going to bring several more of these that we can't wait to talk about.